Drone Buddy vs DroneScout pro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Drone Buddy
This app provides drone pilots with essential flight data, including weather radar, wind maps, and no-fly zone information. It helps users plan safe flights, discover new flying locations, and stay updated on drone news. An optional subscription offers advanced features.
- Weather radar and wind maps
- No-fly zone data
- Best flying window forecasts
- Crowd-sourced flying spot discovery
- Drone news updates
- Drone flying hub for jobs and business
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Don’t waste a trip. Check wind, weather, and airspace before you take off — then find nearby flying sites shared by other pilots. Trusted by over 1 million pilots. 4.7 stars from 8.4K App Store ratings. WHAT YOU GET • Go / no-go — a clear fly check for your pin from weather, TFRs, and U.S. Class B/C/D/E • Wind and weather — live wind, gusts, rain radar, and visibility so you know if it’s actually flyable • Best flying windows — the calmest daylight slots, scored for wind, rain, cloud, visibility, and daylight • No-fly reference maps — global airports, U.S. Class B/C/D/E, US / UK / Canada national parks, TFRs, stadium events, and FAA UAS restricted areas. Adjust airport circle range for your certification. These are planning tools, not official clearance, and not a LAANC filing. • Where to fly — crowd-sourced sites with photos and notes from other pilots • Flying Hub — save favorite spots; businesses can post jobs, inspections, surveys, and training • Drone news — regulations, gear, and industry updates DRONE BUDDY PRO Check any pin first: go / no-go on a searched site, hourly wind, calm flying windows for 10 days, and TFR alerts on the pin you care about. 3-day free trial on the annual plan, then the yearly price shown in-app. Cancel anytime in Apple ID settings. Also available as a 3-month plan or a one-time lifetime purchase. Subscriptions auto-renew unless you turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the period ends. Payment is charged to your Apple ID. Manage or cancel in Account Settings. Please cross-check local laws and airspace before every flight. Drone Buddy is not affiliated with the FAA and does not replace B4UFLY or an FAA-listed LAANC app. Maps and community sites can be incomplete — you are responsible for a legal, safe flight. Privacy: https://dronebuddy.io/privacy Terms: https://dronebuddy.io/terms Support: sayhi@dronebuddy.io Web: https://dronebuddy.io
DroneScout pro
Transform your phone into a drone radar to detect nearby drones using RemoteID/DRI technology. View drone details, save flight paths, and get enhanced airspace awareness. Premium features offer notifications, historical data, and advanced map options.
- Drone detection via Bluetooth/WLAN
- Map display of drone locations
- View drone details and flight paths
- Save flight paths to GPX
- Notifications for detected drones (premium)
- Historical detection data (premium)
- Multiple map providers and layers (premium)
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See which drones are flying around you. DroneScout detects drones that broadcast Remote ID — also known as OpenDroneID or DRI — over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and shows them live on a map. For each detected drone you get its position and flight path, altitude and height, speed and direction, serial number, operator ID, UAS type and operation description, plus the pilot's location whenever the drone broadcasts it. REMOTE ID, IN SHORT Remote ID is a digital licence plate for drones: the aircraft broadcasts who and where it is, directly over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. It is mandatory for most new drones above 250 g in the United States (FAA) and the European Union (EASA), with comparable rules in Japan, Singapore and China. DroneScout implements the open OpenDroneID standards ASTM F3411 and ASD-STAN EN 4709-002 over Bluetooth Legacy, Bluetooth Long Range S8, Wi-Fi Beacon and Wi-Fi NaN. It also receives China's national Remote ID standard GB 46750-2025. FREE • Live detection and tracking of nearby drones • Live map with drone and pilot position • Full broadcast detail: serial number, operator, altitude, speed, direction • Brand identification • Export a flight track to GPX SILVER • Notification when a new drone is detected nearby • Flight history, stored on your phone and searchable later • Model identification: over 300 brands and over 400 drone models recognised • Detailed drone info tab, no banner GOLD — everything in Silver, plus • Extra map providers and layers: normal, satellite, terrain • Offline maps (MBTiles) • Label drones with your own names • Group drones and write notes per drone PLATINUM — everything in Gold, plus • Push detections to your own server, to CalTopo, or to the Drone Radar network • ADS-B: nearby manned aircraft alongside drones, via a local GDL 90 receiver, with network ADS-B as fallback PLEASE READ BEFORE BUYING Remote ID was designed on the assumption that an ordinary smartphone could receive it. On Apple hardware, that assumption fails outright: no iPhone or iPad, on any model, can receive Bluetooth Long Range S8, and iOS does not let any app — ours or anyone else's — scan for Wi-Fi Beacon frames at all. This is a platform restriction, not a defect in the app: without an accessory, an iPhone's realistic ceiling is Bluetooth Legacy, a small minority of real-world Remote ID broadcasts. China's GB 46750-2025 standard mandates exactly the two transports Apple blocks — Bluetooth Long Range S8 and Wi-Fi Beacon — while leaving Bluetooth Legacy optional. Many GB 46750 drones transmit Bluetooth Legacy anyway, so an iPhone or iPad without Bridge can often still see a good share of them — just not a guaranteed one. Our affordable optional DroneScout Bridge receiver sidesteps all of that: it listens on Bluetooth Legacy, Bluetooth Long Range S8, Wi-Fi Beacon and Wi-Fi NaN on 2.4 GHz, and on 5 GHz too on the higher Bridge models — including drones that broadcast Remote ID only on 5 GHz, such as Skydio — then rebroadcasts everything as plain Bluetooth Legacy, which your iPhone and iPad receive normally, no Wi-Fi radio required on the phone's side. Range up to 2 km. PRIVACY Detections stay on your device. Nothing is uploaded unless you enable a server integration yourself. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in your Apple Account settings. Privacy policy: https://dronescout.pro/privacy/ Terms of Use (EULA): https://dronescout.pro/eula/ Website: https://dronescout.co/app
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Drone Buddy at 4.7 against DroneScout pro's 3.8. Drone Buddy also leads on ratings volume (8.4K vs 13) and update cadence (weekly vs every 2 weeks). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Drone Buddy sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and DroneScout pro sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Drone Buddy holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Drone Buddy has 8.4K ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 55% of Drone Buddy's written reviews are positive against 57% of DroneScout pro's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Drone Buddy ships an update weekly, DroneScout pro every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Drone Buddy | DroneScout pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (8.4K ratings) — better | 3.8 (13 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 54.8% of reviews | 57.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 8.4K — better | 13 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 127 MB | 61 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kirway LLC | BlueMark Innovations BV |
Customer experience
Drone Buddy
DroneScout pro
Bugs and requests
Drone Buddy
Reported bugs
3 issues- Map crashes after populating airports
- Profile settings not saving
- Inconsistent wind speed data
Requested features
4 requests- Color-coded wind speed indicators
- Ability to report and verify no-fly zones
- Integration with air traffic control
- Metric units support
DroneScout pro
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Drone Buddy
- Upgrade to Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
- Unlock Drone Buddy Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- Drone Buddy Pro Monthly$9.991 Month
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- Drone Buddy Pro 3 months$12.993 Months
- Unlock Drone Buddy Pro$17.996 Months
- Unlock Drone Buddy Pro Yearly3 Days trial$34.991 Year
- Unlock Drone Buddy Pro Yearly$39.991 Year
- Unlock Drone Buddy Pro Yearly3 Days trial$59.991 Year
- Unlock Pro Access Lifetime$79.99
- Unlock Pro Lifetime$99.99
DroneScout pro
- Silver package monthly$2.991 Month
- Gold package$5.991 Month
- Platinum package$9.991 Month
Questions
Is Drone Buddy free?
Is DroneScout pro free?
Which has better reviews, Drone Buddy or DroneScout pro?
Do Drone Buddy or DroneScout pro have ads?
Which is updated more often, Drone Buddy or DroneScout pro?
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